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Judge Claude Frollo
:NOTE: This about Judge Claude Frollo in the 1996 Disney film. For the original literary version, see Claude Frollo. Judge Claude Frollo, simply known as Frollo, is the main antagonist of Disney's 34th full-length animated feature film The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which is based on the 1831 French novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by the late Victor Hugo. He is a religious fanatic who uses his position as the Minister of Justice in the city of Paris to enrich himself and persecute those he considers inferior, especially the city's Gypsies. He is the ex-foster father of Quasimodo as well as his arch-nemesis and the murderer of his mother (also his father whom Frollo sentenced to death). He was voiced by the late Tony Jay, who also played Shere Khan in Disney's The Jungle Book 2, Monsieur D'Arque in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, and Galactus in the 1994 Fantastic Four TV series. Personality At the beginning of the film, Frollo has two central constructs in his mind: his ruthless and brutal pursuit of enforcing the laws of Paris and his apparent devotion to Catholicism. Because of these things and having lived a life of "power and control", Frollo expresses sort of pride that comes from a feeling of moral superiority -- as he is the enforcer of justice. In the "Bells of Notre Dame", the film mentions that the only time the minister felt any sort of guilt or contrition is when the Archdeacon addresses Frollo's manslaughter of Quasimodo's mother and his attempted infanticide of Quasimodo. This moment reveals Frollo's deepest flaw: his lack of a self-critical conscience. Above all, Frollo believes what he is doing is right to the point where he twists the intentions of others to seem to him as evil or misguided. Due to his Catholic faith, Frollo rejects the spiritualist customs of the gypsies and believes they are scandalizing the people of Paris - thus interfering with his goal of a more morally pure Paris. He focuses much of his efforts on locating and punishing the gypsies. In interacting with others, Frollo is typically solemn, critical, patronizing, superficially kind, and generally negative. He is skilled at reading the motives of others, assisting in his lies and manipulations to the protagonists throughout the film. He has little sense of humor, aside from a few morbid jokes and sarcasm. As opposed to the Archdeacon, Frollo prefers the more negative aspects of his religion such as sin and eternal damnation rather than virtues of forgiveness and mercy. Due to his defective conscience, Frollo persistently believes he is a morally better person than most everyone else. Frollo is his own patron saint. Towards the middle of the film, Frollo develops a lust for Esmeralda which contributes to a failing image of his own moral perfection. Unwilling to accept or mend this, he blames Esmeralda, Satan, and even God for this dilemma. Frollo then begins to enter much more aggressive and persecutory state in his search for this woman. He later tries to make the gypsy his mistress under the guise of converting her to his religion when she is finally caught. Towards the very end, when Esmeralda rejects Frollo's advances for the last time, he no longer feels the need to make penance with Quasimodo and impudently rejects his feelings of guilt for having killed his mother. His final words emphasize his delusion of moral perfection as he attempts to kill Quasimodo and Esmeralda: "And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!". Appearance Frollo is an aging man defined by his wrinkled, careworn face. He has black eyes and thinning white hair. As the Minister of Justice and a high-ranking public official, Frollo is most frequently dressed in a black robe, a purple and black striped hat with a red ribbon attached to the bottom, and shoulder pads with red and black stripes. He also wears rings on his fingers, two on the right and one on the left, with the jewels colored red, green and blue. Reception Frollo has left a lasting impact on audiences, being remembered as one of the darkest Disney villains (if not the darkest), as his crimes include attempted infanticide on Quasimodo when he was a baby simply for being ugly, expressing clear genocidal intentions in regards to gypsy population in Paris, and trying to burn an innocent family alive just to set an example. Also, the sexual element of his character is otherwise almost unheard of for an animated Disney character. It is also heavily implied that he is responsible for the deaths of countless numbers of gypsies and other innocent citizens. At the same time, however, Frollo is arguably the most complex and human Disney villain as he does have an internal conflict, as well as a distinct fear for his soul, which he fails to listen to due to his delusional denial of his own sins. Some even find him sympathetic and wish he had redeemed himself or even ended up with Esmeralda. This may have something to do with the book, where he is significantly less malevolent and legitimately is sympathetic. In addition, Frollo's conflict with the Archdeacon of Notre Dame (who is meant to embody the good aspects of Frollo's character in the novel) has been regarded as mirroring the conflict between pure religion (loving, welcoming and generous) and fanaticism (hateful, oppressive and violent). An official poll of the Top 30 Disney Villains placed him in the #10 spot, and the Nostalgia Critic gave him the #4 spot on his personal Top 11 list. Also, his Villain Song "Hellfire" is widely praised as one of the very best, greatly contributing to his popularity. Oddly enough, some people even overlook his villainy due to having enjoyed the song so much. Despite (and, given the absurd nature of the phenomenon, likely because of) being such a dark character, Frollo is the second most popular Disney character in the Youtube Poop community, next to Gaston. The "Hellfire" scene, in particular, is a very popular source, again despite and perhaps because of being so dark. The most notable YTP work starring Frollo is "The Frollo Show" by YouTuber Chincherrinas where he is portrayed as the main protagonist and is best friends with Gaston. Quotes Trivia *Frollo is arguably considered to be Disney's most evil and sinister antagonist to date. In fact, Frollo was meant by Disney Studios to be as evil and as vile as possible, in an attempt to avert the trope "Evil is Cool", common to many Disney villains. Instead, he wound up being a Love to Hate example. *He has the most screentime of any major Disney villain; Frollo is shown for roughly a third of the movie's total runtime. *In the original book by Victor Hugo, Frollo is the Archdeacon of Notre Dame. He is actually caring towards Quasimodo, whom he adopted out of genuine mercy, and his good-for-nothing brother Jehan. But when Esmeralda comes along, Frollo's lust for her results in a slow descent into villainy. *Frollo's genocidal agenda against Gypsies mirrors the Nazi's own genocide against Gypsies (which occurred concurrently to the genocide against European Jews). Like Hitler, Frollo is also an oppressive dictator who rules through fear and intimidation and has a complete willingness to kill anyone who gets in his way. *When Frollo rages at Quasimodo for helping Esmeralda escape, he tosses the figure of the Gypsy, knocking over a figure of himself in the process. Also, aside from the obvious symbolism, he was invoking by burning Esmeralda's figure, there is how he smashes all of the other figures and the cathedral model in his rage. Not only does this foreshadow Frollo's villainous breakdown, it specifically shows how he is willing to do anything, such as killing the citizens or attacking the cathedral itself, to ensure that he gets what he wants, which eventually leads Frollo straight to his downfall. In addition his action of attacking the church can be interpreted that in the fit of madness, he has unintentionally sealed his fate upon the king of France. Therefore, even if he were to succeed in his goal of killing Quasimodo and Esmeralda, the Archdeacon would report this to the king and he would be executed for blasphemy and his final words and actions before his death may signify that at that moment of madness, he began to believe himself to be God, which is an extremely serious sin in . *Frollo's supervising animator is Kathy Zielinski. 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